Doctor Who - Telos - 08 by Shell Shock

Author:Shell Shock [Shock, Shell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

on the island either.

There was only one place that the woman could be headed.

The Doctor and his band had made it only part of the way back to the

Beach when they heard the gunfire.

The war may have been over, but clearly there were battles still to be

fought.

The Doctor raced ahead, while his companions hastened to catch up as

best they could.

✶

Scrounger can’t remember exactly when Ranger arrived on the Beach.

The days tend to blur together in his mind. But he can remember exactly

how it happened.

The thought of running from the newcomer, as he shuffled down from

the cliffs toward the shore, never occurred to Scrounger, nor to any of

the others, not even timid little Snapdragon.

Of course, none of them had their names until Ranger came.

Ranger was done fighting. It was evident in his hunched walk and in

his tired eyes. In his warm grin, too, even though it sometimes flashed

across his face like a nervous thing. Ranger was just a new creature on

the Beach that day; a tall creature who’d crawled out of the cave late like

he was afraid of the daylight. He was all beat up like the older warriors

that Scrounger generally avoided in his forays out across the seabed.

And the man’s armour, the colour of mud and weeds, was hanging off

him in tatters.

Scrounger and Snapdragon stood their ground, forward of the others,

following the stranger’s slow shuffle to the sea. They eyed each other

curiously as he stood there in the wind, salt water washing his boots.

When he turned and saw them he laughed. ‘Walkin’ toolkits, look at

you! Shit, you little guys are smart.’ Snapdragon’s miniature shell, like a

compressed egg of plastic, caught the man’s eye first. ‘You’re lookin’ a

little dented though. Like you been through the wars.’

Ranger crouched down over them, shivering as if against a bitter cold –

even though the incoming breeze was light. He stuck his finger out to

tease Snapdragon, only to think better of it when Snapdragon’s sharp, if

tiny, pincers nipped the air. But he held that grin. He stuffed one of his

shaking hands inside his pack; not, as it first appeared, to steady it, but to

retrieve a curio from within. The object, Ranger demonstrated, bristled

with blades, cork-screws and, well, gadgets. He waved it at Scrounger.

‘You’re just like one of these bad boys, ain’t you?’

Scrounger grew excited. Was this to be a gift from the newcomer? He

was aware of Ranger’s eyes scrutinising him properly for the first time.

He would always remember liking those round fish-eyes, gleaming in

that sun-cooked oval face.

‘That’s some shell you got there,’ added Ranger. He glanced around

the others, assembled behind Scrounger and Snapdragon. ‘Smart little

guys, yeah!’

Ranger pocketed the multi-bladed knife, and Scrounger realised that it

wasn’t a present for him after all.

‘Name’s Ranger.’ He extended that finger again. ‘Pleasure’s mine.’

Later, lazily, Ranger lobbed something like a stone into the sea. It

exploded like a mine, and he waded out to collect the few dead fish that

floated in on the waves. Scrounger wondered if he should help gather

them in. Favour for favour; you had to earn a friend. That

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